Automatic door-closer.



PATENTED 00T. 11, 1904. J. B. GATES & F. EIHSTADT. AUTOMATIC DOORCLOSER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

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, l l l l lll Mum ' UNITED STATES Patented October 11, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES E. GATES AND FRED EIHSTADT, OF ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI.

AUTOMATIC DOOR-CLOSER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Pa e 'N 772,095, dated October 11,1904.

Application filed May 9, 1904- Serial No. 207,048. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: I

Be it known that we, J AMES E. GATES and FRED EIHsrAD'r, citizens of theUnited States, residing at St. Joseph, in the county of Buchanan andState of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inAutomatic Door-Closers; and we do declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame. reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to theletters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of thisspecification.

Our invention relates to improvements in opening and closing doors atelevators or other doors that are located one above the other ondifferent stories of a building; and our object is to provide a lockwhich being operated at one floor in closing a door will operateautomatically at the same instant with every door vertically above orbelow it or that may be both above and below it.

We attain our object by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings, in.

' broken away.

H H, attached on the side of the wall or doorcasing.

I is a shaft the lower end of which rests in a socket in thefloor of thebottom story of the building in which the device is operated and theupper end of which passes up into the ceiling of the top story of thebuilding or into a socket therein. 1 I are guides attached track androllers and its own weight.

to wall A or other convenient way, within which the shaft travels.Rigidly attached to said shaft I or cast as a part thereof are castingsJ J, each provided with a starter J, having a flat edge bearing outwardobliquely from top tobottom toward its door.

Each door is provided with a lock-piece K, rigidly fastened thereto, thelock edge of which bears outward obliquely from bottom to top at anangle adapting it to adjust itself to the flat edge of starter J whenthe door is open or is being started shut. A lock-piece K, pivoted in aslot in the upper part of casting J, rests upon the top of starter J.Said casting is provided with cogs L L on the edge opposite starter J. Alever M, attached to the wall or other support, is provided with cogs MM, adapted to mesh with cogs L L. A balance-weightO, provided with a boxO, is attached to shaft I and supported from the ceiling bya pulley P.This weight is intended to assist in carrying the weight of the devicewhen operated in a building having a height of five or more stories.

From the foregoing description, examined in connection with thedrawings, it will be understood that our device is especially adapt-- edfor use with elevators in stores and other buildings in which theelevators carry heavy freight or goods as well as passengers and inwhich the doors are connected with the building instead of with theelevators, have no connection one with another on the several floors,and each is opened and closed entirely by hand. In our device a doorbeing shoved open lock-piece K crowds automatically under the hooked endof lock-piece K, which instantly drops into its normal position, and thedoor is thus held open securely. To close the door, it is only necessaryto press lever K downward slightly. Assisted by cogs L L and M M thispressure elevates shaft I, its casting J, and starter J and lock-pieceK, thereby releasing lock-piece K. At the same instant the flat edge ofstarter J as the shaft and casting are lifted crowds lock-piece Kbackward, thus starting the door, which is quickly carried shut by theaid of inclined other doors on the different floors are open, themovement which releases the one door automatically releases every otherdoor, thus enabling a single person in case of a fire or other emergencyto simultaneously and almost instantly close the door upon each of thefloors of the building.

What we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In an automatic door-closer the combination with a plurality of doorsin vertical line on different floors and provided with inclined tracks,hangers, rollers and guides, of a shaft provided with guides and upperand lower socketed apertures to permit the raising and lowering thereof,its balance-weight and pulley, the rigidly-attached castings thereon,the projecting starters each having an oblique edge, the lock-piecespivoted in the upper parts thereof and supported thereby, the lockpiecesrigidly attached to the doors and adapted to engage with the pivotedlock-pieces and when released therefrom to bear against the edges of thestarter as the shaft is raised to close the doors, the cogs upon thecastings and the levers and their cogs by which at any floor the entireshaft may be raised and every door closed, substantially as describedand shown. Y

2. The combination in a door-closing device of asingle shaft extendingvertically through the stories of a building, a casting at each story onsaid shaft provided with a cogged edge and an opposite projection withflat edge extending outward obliquely from top to bottom, a lock-piecepivoted therein and resting upon the top thereof adapted to engage witha lock-piece rigidly fastened to each door at each story, and ahand-lever provided with cogs adapted to mesh with the casting-cogs andby which said shaft and castings may be raised and their pivotedlock-pieces lifted out of contact with the lock-pieces upon the doorsand the doors upon all floors shoved simultaneously to a close,substantially as described and shown.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

JAMES E. GATES. FRED EIHSTADT.

VVitnessesz J. M. CRoss, EMMA HEoKEL.

